Literacy Instruction with Disciplinary Texts

Book excerpt: To develop strong disciplinary literacy skills, middle and high school students need to engage with diverse types of challenging texts in every content area. This book provides a blueprint for constructing literacy-rich instructional units in English language arts, science, and social studies. The authors describe how to design interconnected text sets and plan lessons that support learning and engagement before, during, and after reading. Presented are ways to build academic vocabulary and background knowledge, teach research-based comprehension strategies, and guide effective discussions and text-based writing activities. Chapters also cover how to teach students to write argumentative, informative, and narrative essays, and to conduct discipline-specific inquiry. Special features include sample text sets and 24 reproducible planning templates and other teaching tools; purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.